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Here on a quiet Friday now that we know there won’t be a new defensive coordinator for at least another week, it seems like a good time to quickly touch on a couple of subjects that — given the deadness of this time of year with the Cards — seem to have inexplicably taken stronger root than they should.

— The Cardinals aren’t headed for Ireland. The Steelers could be. I could see that. When your owner is the U.S. ambassador to the country, that’s an easy dot to connect. But this story from Ireland doesn’t say one word about the Cardinals. Profootballtalk.com does, citing the chances the Cards may have blackouts next season and that the Steelers just came to Arizona in 2007. Except:

We already covered why a team like Pittsburgh is coming back again with no Cards’ visit to Pennsylvania, and the Cards have the same “issue” with the Giants, Cowboys, Redskins, Eagles, Bengals and Ravens.

The Cards have already been one of the few teams that played in a foreign country (Mexico in 2005) and one of the rare to already give up a home game. They won’t be asked to do it again so soon.

Is anyone worried the Cards would not sell out a game against the Steelers? That’s a lock to avoid a blackout.

If the Steelers want a game in Ireland, why wouldn’t it be their home game to be sacrificed?

— Larry Fitzgerald is not going to be traded to the Patriots (or anywhere) all of a sudden. This “rumor” came from this report, which included the famous second line, “In fact, no one polled for this story had any direct knowledge of whether the Cardinals have had any legitimate discussions about trading their star receiver.”

Ummm …

I don’t know what is going to happen with Fitzgerald. He avoids talking about his future. SI’s Peter King tweeted today that “he’s going to want out of Arizona” but that was a prediction rather than anything based on a Fitz conversation. I’ll say what I have always said: The Cards want to re-sign him and will do everything they can to make that happen, and I think Fitz is going to try and make sure he knows what teammates he’s going to have around him before he makes any commitments. It’s not rocket science. It’s common sense.

— Speaking of Fitz, not only did he take the two random Twitter fans to Hawaii (one of whom who turned out to be a cancer survivor) but he also paid for two other breast cancer survivors — Liz Dodson and Maureen Hanna — to join him at the Pro Bowl in honor of his late mother, who passed away from breast cancer.

UPDATE: Fitz texted me this message about bringing along Dodson and Hanna: “I obviously have a real interest in rewarding breast cancer survivors. It hit close to home when I lost my mom to the disease, and it’s truly an honor to continue to raise awareness in the fight against breast cancer. I’m happy to bring these survivors to Hawaii with me and I hope they have a great time.”